Driving support apparatus

Abstract

A driving support apparatus for a hybrid vehicle including an engine and a motor, in which the engine starts running when any one of parameters indicating a state of the hybrid vehicle reaches an engine start threshold set for the parameters, the driving support apparatus includes a current value acquiring section that acquires current values of the parameters, a margin calculation section that calculates margin levels for the current values of the parameters for keeping the engine stopping using the current values of the parameters and the engine start thresholds, and an output section that outputs the smallest margin level of the calculated margin levels.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A driving support apparatus for a hybrid vehicle including an engine and a motor, in which the engine starts running when any one of a plurality of parameters indicating states of the hybrid vehicle reaches an engine start threshold set for each of the plurality of parameters, the driving support apparatus comprising:
 a current value acquiring section that acquires current values of each of the plurality of parameters; 
 a margin calculation section that calculates margin levels for the current values of the plurality of parameters for keeping the engine stopping using the current values of the plurality of parameters and the engine start threshold set for each of the plurality of the plurality of parameters; 
 a drive control section that maintains the engine in a stopped state when all of the acquired current values of the plurality of parameters are lower than the engine start threshold set for each of the plurality of parameters, and starts the engine when any one of the acquired current values of the plurality of parameters reaches a corresponding engine start threshold, the drive control section also selects a smallest margin level among the calculated margin levels; and 
 an output section that outputs only the smallest margin level selected among the calculated margin levels to notify a driver of the hybrid vehicle that the engine will start when the output smallest margin level reaches the engine start threshold. 
 
     
     
       2. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the margin calculating section calculates one of the margin levels by dividing a differences between one of the current values of the parameters and a corresponding engine starting threshold by a difference between a value most distant from the corresponding engine starting threshold within a possible value range of the one of the current values and the corresponding engine starting threshold. 
     
     
       3. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a display unit that includes a display area in which an area corresponding to the smallest margin level is displayed with a color difference from that of the other regions. 
 
     
     
       4. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 2 , further comprising:
 a display unit that includes a display area in which an area corresponding to the smallest margin level is displayed with a color difference from that of the other regions. 
 
     
     
       5. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein when the smallest margin level is the maximum value, the area has the maximum area, and when the smallest margin level is the minimum value, the area is substantially zero. 
     
     
       6. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein when the smallest margin level is the maximum value, the area has the maximum area, and when the smallest margin level is the minimum value, the area is substantially zero. 
     
     
       7. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the parameters include at least one of a state of charge of a battery of the hybrid vehicle, a value of required output to the hybrid vehicle, a voltage of the battery, or a temperature of the battery. 
     
     
       8. The driving support apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the output unit outputs a notification to a driver of the hybrid vehicle when the parameter corresponding to the smallest margin level changes during traveling.